


the most wonderful time of the year

by wordswithdragons



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Modern AU, bait and ezran are unintentional wingmen, cue tooth rotting holiday fluff, they're in high school but it also doesn't matter??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:54:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21898474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordswithdragons/pseuds/wordswithdragons
Summary: Ezran drags Callum to a "Meet Santa" event. Rayla works as a holiday helper. Christmas fluff ensues. Oneshot.
Relationships: Callum & Ezran & Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Callum & Ezran (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 302





	the most wonderful time of the year

**Author's Note:**

> i accidentally wrote a modern au christmas oneshot?? requested by dangdiggitydang on tumblr

Ez is thirteen—maybe a little old for this—but Callum’s never been good at telling his little brother no, let alone around the holidays and the kid needs a drive. So that’s how Ezran drags him out to a Meet Santa stand at their local mall the first Saturday of winter break once Callum has finished parking the family car, his fingers still a little cold from the frigid air outside.

Santa isn’t there but Ez’s enthusiasm isn’t diminished. He takes one look at the chair with Christmas lights and garland and then sets about making sure Bait’s Santa hat is sitting properly on the glow toad’s head. “Callum? Does that look straight to you?”

To his own credit, Callum does check, before he says, rather flatly, “It looks fine Ez.” Then, a tad more incredulously. “Why does it matter? You have plenty of photos of Bait with Santa.”

“Yes, _but_ ,” Ezran says, “this is the first year I’ve convinced him to glow matching colours. I’ve left it up to him to decide which ones—red and green or blue and white—but either way, the picture will look perfect.” He holds Bait a little closer. “Won’t it, Bait?”

The glow toad harrumphs and Callum feels like maybe Bait got cajoled into this just as much as he did, if only because Bait’s face reads all too much like _You get this for one hour, max, kid._

With that in mind, Callum checks the clock. It’s noon and nobody else is clustered around the event, one red rope clipped across the matching carpet underneath. Giant candy canes stick out from either side of Santa’s chair. Maybe the big man himself is on a lunch break? They could be here for a while. Callum cranes his neck. There’s no _Be back soon_ sign…

Then, behind one of the Christmas trees and backdrop, he spots a girl. Tall, lithe, his age, with white hair that goes amazingly well with her elf getup. It’s the whole nine yards too, with stockings and little bell earrings, a hat and pointy ears. He doesn’t recognize her, so she must not go to his high school.

“Wait here,” he says to Ez, plucks up his courage (because well, she _is_ pretty, and he’s already a little socially awkward around not very pretty girls at best) and walks over. 

“Hey, uh—”

She turns, looking up from her phone. Her eyes are a striking violet that makes his heart do a somersault in his chest. “Uh—” She regards him as though she’s trying to figure him out. He guesses it does look odd, to find a teenage boy here to ‘meet Santa.’ “Can I help you?” Her Scottish lilt matches oddly well too.

“Yeah, uh—I was just wondering when the uh, Santa is going to be here? My little brother wants to meet him and—?”

“Oh, uh. He gets in at like one. This is his lunch break.” Her expression turns dry. “I’m here to hold down the fort.”

“Oh, okay.” He offers up a half heart smile. So they’ll be waiting here for an hour. Great. At least they’ll be first in line. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” She turns back to her phone, and Callum is just glad he didn’t embarrass himself as he heads back to his brother and relays the news.

Ezran holds up Bait and gives him a stern look. “Since we have to wait, I’ll take off your hat for now, but you have to let me put it back on when it’s time, okay?” Bait grunts and only shifts a little in Ezran’s arms as the kid undoes the tiny string and stuffs the Santa hat in his pocket.

By the time he’s done, movement catches Callum’s eye, and the girl is walking out from around the tree to the main seat to leave a sign that says Back at one. Then she straightens up and catches him staring, and horrified, Callum flushes and looks away. He hopes his scarf hides it as he bends down to be more on Ezran’s eye level.

“I know Barius’ Diner is near here,” he says, “if we want to grab lunch—”

Then he hears a sharp bark of laughter, a little throaty but bright, and looks up. It’s the girl, arm curled over her stomach as she looks at him and Ezran and Bait with glee. “Sorry,” she sputters, and Callum relaxes. Ez can be a sensitive kid, but he doesn’t sense any malice in her humour. “Just—what is that little bugger? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Ezran beams and walks over to the rope, the girl meeting him on the other side. “His name is Bait,” he says proudly. “He’s a glow toad.” Bait grunts in reply. “Do you want to see his hat?”

The girl’s smile softens and Callum knows he was right to like her, at least a little. “Sure.”

Bait won’t let Ezran put the hat on, though, seemingly knowing it’s not time, as Callum comes up behind Ezran’s shoulder. “He’s going to glow Christmas colours for the photo,” Ez explains rather seriously.

“Ah of course,” she says with a conspiring wink.

“We might go grab lunch now,” Ezran says. “Bait likes sandwich crusts.”

“I’ll do my best to hold your place in line,” she promises, and Callum grins appreciatively. It may not be busy now but it will be, and he knows from years past how busy it can get. He also, maybe strangely enough, trusts her word, mostly because he doesn’t think she has any reason not to keep it, and really, who can say no to Ezran?

“We could grab something for you, if you want,” Callum says, offering before his brain can catch up with his mouth. It doesn’t seem like she’ll be allowed to leave for her lunch break for a while, if she’s here to stay and then will have to help manage the kids once the meet-n-greet actually starts.

The girl blinks prettily in surprise—really, how is that _possible_ —and a blush crawls over his face, but then she looks to Ezran’s happy grin and firm supportive nod, and smiles. “Uh. Yeah, sure. Where’re you going?”

“We were thinking Barius’,” he says. It’s only a level up in the mall.

The girl closes her eyes and hums. “Mm, they have great moonberry surprises there.” Her eyes reopen, still striking violet. “Cheap too. I think I have a dollar or two on me.” She pats the pockets of her green dress. “Nobody tips at this job,” she jokes.

“Don’t worry about it,” Callum says and she looks up, even more surprised this time.

“Yeah,” Ezran sweeps in. “It’s the holidays.”

“So,” Callum says, “Moonberry surprise?”

She slowly smiles, big and bright, eyes crinkling. Worth a million dollars, easy. “Yeah. Thanks.”

They come back maybe twenty minutes later with two baked subs, both crusts set aside for Bait, a juice box for Ezran, latte for Callum, and moonberry surprise for the girl. Callum has never ordered one before, but it’s such a thick with berries and who knows else in the purple sludge that he gets why it could easily be a meal on its own.

The girl is waiting for them by the velvet rope, a couple of families sitting on benches across the way—it seems she’s kept her word about keeping the front clear for them—and she tucks her phone inside her pocket. Callum hands her shake over. “My Christmas miracle,” she says, taking a slurp and letting out a content sight. “Thank you so much.”

He smiles back at her. “Don’t mention it.” Then his attention is stolen, because Ezran is trying to drink juice, eat his sub, and hold Bait all at the same time, and Callum has to save the sub from hitting the floor entirely. “Here, I’ll hold your juice for now, okay?” It’s a little uncomfortable to hold his latte in one hand and Ez’s juice in the other, his sub held awkwardly in the cradle of his hand (it’ll be a bit cold when he gets to it) but it’s fine. It’s what big brothers do.

“So,” the girl says, smiling and resting her elbows on one golden pommel of the velvet rope stand, “do you buy smoothies for all the holiday helpers you meet, or—?”

“I mean,” Ezran considers, “I think Callum would, if he could, but he’s also saving up for art school, so—”

“Minimum wage it is,” she finishes, catching his eye. She understands all too well, apparently. Probably why she’s working here so close to the holidays, too. “He’s a good brother, though, using his free Saturday to bring you here.”

Callum’s cheeks warm. He fidgets with his scarf before remembering he doesn’t have a hand for that, and adjusts his grip on his latte instead. Is it hot in here, suddenly, or is it just him? Maybe he drank too much too fast?

“Oh he’s the best,” Ezran beams. “A good artist too. He’ll probably draw you later too. That’s why he stares at people.”

“I wasn't—” Callum fights down the rising panic, as he knows fighting down the blush overtaking his face now is a lost cause, as the girl looks at him a little blankly. “I mean, maybe I was, but—I won’t draw you unless—that’s okay with you?”

Then she smiles, laughing a little and waving him off with her hand. “Relax. I don’t mind. It’s sort of flattering, to be honest.”

“Flattering?” he says, perhaps a tad too hopeful.

“Yeah.” She meets his gaze though, and there might be the same sort of hopeful nervousness, hopeful interest, in her face. If his eyes aren’t playing tricks on him. “Besides, I owe you one, right?”

He swallows, knowing this could be interpreted horribly, but he doesn’t know how else to set up being… smooth? No, this can’t be smooth. He’s too nervous to be smooth. He says it anyway. “Well uh, I don’t know if I’d pick a drawing for that.”

“Oh?” And maybe it’s because he’s here on a Saturday and looking after his little brother, but she gives him room to follow through. “What would you prefer, then?”

Callum says it before he can lose his nerve. “Your name.”

She grins. “Rayla. My name is Rayla.”

Ez butts in. “It’s nice to meet you, Rayla.” Callum has to rescue the juice box next, so Ezran can shake her hand. “I’m Ezran, this is Callum, and you already know Bait.”

“It’s nice to meet you too.” She looks up. “And it’s nice to meet you too, Callum. And Bait.”

Callum opens his mouth to reply—maybe, since he’s feeling a little daring, to even flirt—when Rayla is tugged away by an upcoming parent and their toddler, and she has to answer their questions. Ezran wants to go sit on one of the benches so that Bait can sit while he eats Ezran’s leftover crust, and Callum lets himself be tugged away too. It’s nice to not have to hold everything and actually eat his sub, and when he glances over again, halfway through the meat and cheese, Rayla is still busy.

Still, she keeps a spot at the front of the line for them when they meander back over, the line now forming. “They were here first,” she cites, and only has to put up with one dirty look.

“Thanks,” Callum tells her, and this time she’s opening her mouth to say something, when cheers rise up from the kids because Santa, white bearded and red coated, emerges from behind the curtain. Rayla shoots him a quick, apologetic glance, although she what she’s apologetic about, Callum isn’t sure, before she goes to stand by Santa’s side.

There’s an undeniable fondness as she watches Ezran get Bait situated with Santa, who looks a little less than pleased to have drool on his knee, Bait’s hat a little askew before Ez fixes it. Callum gets his camera ready as Bait finally picks his colours, going with blue and white, and snaps a few pictures along with the more official camera that Rayla works. It’s a work of art, honestly, Ezran on one knee and Bait on the other.

“Santa doesn’t get paid enough for this,” Rayla whispers to Callum when she hands him the promptly developed photo, and they both have to hide a snicker.

The line is long by the time their relatively short turn is over. A new sign is set up by the end of the carpet when they pass by. _Closed at 3_. It’s only 1:15 now, so they’d be heading home early. Not as early as Callum had wanted, maybe, but he can’t regret today at all. If unresolved.

He glances over at Rayla, helping get a pair of twins settled, her earrings twinkling. Hair shining somehow even under the bottom dollar Christmas lights.

“Hey Ez,” he says, stopping his brother. “Do you have a present for Dad yet?” Harrow is famously hard to shop for, always saying that he has everything he needs right here. Callum brought him a tie, and he knows Ezran always makes him a card, but now that his brother has some allowance, it might be nice for Harrow to get something other than a nicely decorated piece of paper.

“Ooh,” Ezran says. “I do have thirteen dollars on me. Maybe I could get him a gift card.”

“That could work,” Callum says. “Let’s check the store directory and see what they have.”

Ezran takes a long time looking at the nearby mall map (Callum glances back at Rayla a few times too) and then spends a long time making a list of possibilities.

“There’s the bookstore—Dad’s always reading new fantasy novels—and the petstore—I think Pip needs more birdseed?—and—”

“Why not check out all of them?” Callum suggests. “Then once you’ve seen everything, we can go back around to whatever you decided.”

“Okay!”

Ezran examines bookmarks and thick high fantasy novels, little holiday themed birdseed packaging and new bird stands, among many other possibilities. Eventually he decides on the birdseed—"It seems practical,“ he says proudly—even if he’s short on the last two dollars, which Callum provides, before they circle back around to the meet-n-greet at five to three. The last family is done, the velvet rope clipped up again, and—Callum’s heart soars. Rayla is still there.

Looking a little tired with a customer service smile plastered on, before she looks up, sees them, and it turns into a real one.

The last family is given their photo and walking off when she comes back over to the rope and they approach, Santa scratching his belly as he disappears once again.

"I thought you left,” she admits.

“Had some Christmas shopping to do,” Callum shrugs, hands in his pockets as he smiles at her.

Ezran holds up the bag. “We got birdseed. And went around to all the stores. It was nice. Callum’s usually a bit more impatient to get going.”

“Is he?” Rayla says, joking but it falls away as she looks up at him. Gets what really happened. Pink stains her cheeks, but a smile curls her lips. Could she get any prettier?

“Christmas spirit got the best of me, I guess,” he says. “And it wasn’t all bad. I got a little notepad.” He hadn’t been able to resist at the bookstore. He digs it out of his bag, a smiley elf face sticker on the front. “It’ll be good for doodles on the go.”

“Any of me yet?” she asks, leaning over.

“Not yet.” There hadn’t been time, and besides, if and when he does draw her, he wants it to be on a bigger piece of paper, where he can do her justice.

“Hm.” Rayla presses her lips together. “You got a pen, too?”

Callum blinks. “Uh. Yeah. Hang on.” He finds his pen after a bit of fumbling, nervous now, as he hands the notebook and pen over to her. For a second he thinks he’s being stupid, and that’s not what she wanted, but then she writes something down on the first page and passes it back over.

“Well it was very nice meeting you,” she says, tucking her hair behind her still pointy ear. “But we’re done for the day, so I should probably get going.”

“Merry Christmas,” Ezran calls after her, when she goes back behind the trees after one last smile. Then he tugs on Callum’s arm and leans over. “What’d she draw in your tiny sketchbook?” Then he pulls a face. “Her number? She gave you her number?” The realization strikes suddenly. “Wait, were you two _flirting_? Ugh—”

“Christmas miracles, Ez,” Callum says, too giddy to care about his little brother’s distaste, winter break and all its possibilities stretching out ahead of him. It’s never looked brighter.

He’ll have to call her, obviously. Maybe go to Barius’ with her and actually sit down while eating. Try moonberry surprise? The details are fuzzy. She could show up in her elf costume again, even in July, for all he cares, even if he’d really like to see her again sooner than that. The details don’t matter, as long as she says yes.

(She does.)


End file.
